Little Man Tate (1991) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error Dede is a sole parent trying to bring up her son Fred. When it is discovered that Fred is a genius, she is determined to ensure that Fred has all the opportunities that he needs, and that ... See full summary » Director: 10 July 2009 4:11 AM, -08:00 | WENN Around The Web a list of 25 titles created 23 Jan 2011 a list of 24 titles created 25 Oct 2012 a list of 25 titles created 05 Dec 2013 a list of 27 titles created 13 Jun 2014 a list of 21 titles created 16 Oct 2015 Title: Little Man Tate (1991) 6.6/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below.

You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. 2 wins & 1 nomination. See more awards » Videos In a remote woodland cabin, a small town doctor discovers Nell - a beautiful young hermit woman with many secrets. Director: Michael Apted After a young woman suffers a brutal gang rape in a bar one night, a prosecutor assists in bringing the perpetrators to justice, including the ones who encouraged and cheered on the attack. Director: Jonathan Kaplan A farmer's wife begins to suspect that the man in her bed is an impostor after he returns home from the Civil War. Director: Jon Amiel After losing her job, making out with her soon-to-be former boss and finding out that her daughter plans to spend Thanksgiving with her boyfriend, Claudia Larson faces spending the holiday with her family. Director: Jodie Foster The story of the romance between the King of Siam and widowed British schoolteacher, Anna Leonowens, during the 1860s. Director: Andy Tennant A witness to a mob assassination flees for her life from town to town, switching identities, but cannot seem to elude Milo, the chief killer out to get her.

Director: Dennis Hopper A troubled husband and executive adopts a beaver hand-puppet as his sole means of communicating. Director: Jodie Foster A woman struggles to recover from a brutal attack by setting out on a mission for revenge. Director: Neil Jordan Mark Harmon is a washed-up baseball player who is called back home to handle the ashes of his childhood sweetheart/ first love who had committed suicide. As he searches for what to do with ... See full summary » Directors: Steven Kampmann, William Porter Stars: Mark Harmon, Jodie Foster, Blair Brown Edit Storyline Dede is a sole parent trying to bring up her son Fred. When it is discovered that Fred is a genius, she is determined to ensure that Fred has all the opportunities that he needs, and that he is not taken advantage of by people who forget that his extremely powerful intellect is harboured in the body and emotions of a child. Written by Murray Chapman <muzzle@cs.uq.oz.au> It's not what he knows. It's what he understands. Genres: 1 November 1991 (USA) See more » Also Known As: Mentes que brillan See more » Filming Locations: Jodie Foster 's directorial film debut.

See more » Goofs When Fred first enters Jane's office, there is a card on her desk (at around 52 mins) that Fred takes (at around 57 mins) but which is soon back on the desk (at around 1 min). See more » Quotes [first lines] Fred Tate : It's funny, cause I *think* I can even remember being born. For the first two weeks of my life I didn't even have a name. Dede couldn't make up her mind. She finally decided on Fred. She said that she had never heard of a little kid named Fred before. Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (as Mozart) Performed by Jacques Rouvier /Mozart String Trio Courtesy of Denon/Nippon Columbia Co., Ltd. By Arrangement with Warner Special Products (Bay Area) – See all my reviews Little Man Tate is a very good movie. Jodie Foster's debut as a filmmaker shows a little boy genius, who we've all seen before. The difference is the little boy is human, and not just a brain. He worries about people dying, envies the popular athletic boy, all the while plays music in competition form and forms math problems on his head.

The conflict between Jodie Foster, the mother, and Dianne Wiest, the child genius grown up, is somewhat annoying, but it makes sense, as they are both extremes of parenting. The child in this movie plays it superbly, as does Foster and Wiest. Some points of this movie I was about to worry that the emotional music was coming and we'd see some sappy speech. Thankfully that never happened. What this movie is, is an emotional movie that doesn't have a bad guy or good guy to root or cheer for. Everyone here's prerogatives make sense, and it's up to you who you support, and what you think about Fred Tate, the little genius. 8 of 11 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes Little Man Tate (1991) - Jodie Foster | Review | AllMovie Little Man Tate (1991) Directed by Jodie Foster Genres - Drama | Sub-Genres - Childhood Drama , Family Drama | Release Date - Oct 9, 1991 (USA) | Run Time - 99 min.

| Countries - USA | MPAA Rating - PG AllMovie Rating twitter Review by Karl Williams The directorial debut of actress Jodie Foster, this comedy-drama about a Cincinnati boy genius is one of the decade's most underrated gems, based on a nearly flawless script by Scott Frank that is chock full of wit, intelligence, emotional insight, and a gentle good humor. The performances here are uniformly excellent, particularly that of Dianne Wiest as a fellow, adult genius whose remarkable brains don't extend to a self-knowledge of her own fragile egotism and bitterness. Foster is less convincing as a blue-collar hausfrau if only because her innate taste and astuteness tend to shine through her slightly underdeveloped role (a brief sojourn for her character in Florida also smacks of narrative artifice, the script needing for her to leave the stage momentarily). These are the few minor flaws in a structurally air-tight, compelling, and utterly satisfying film, proving that Woody Allen and his Manhattan stomping grounds don't have the market cornered on the presentation of brilliant, funny, and absorbing human entertainment. Little Man Tate is a charming film destined to be discovered with delight by weekend cable TV viewers and video rental seekers willing to try something different.

Frank found less fertile artistic ground for his next three films, all of them dark crime thrillers, Dead Again (1991), Final Analysis (1992), and Malice (1993). It was only when he returned to material with an underpinning of sly humor that his work began earning the label of "modern classic" again, with such films as Get Shorty (1995) and Out of Sight (1998). Movie Review - - Review/Film; Ulcers and the Other Prices Of Being a Pint-Sized Prodigy - NYTimes.com Review/Film; Ulcers and the Other Prices Of Being a Pint-Sized Prodigy By VINCENT CANBY Published: October 9, 1991 Fred Tate (Adam Hann-Byrd) is like any other 7-year-old. He's not especially handsome but, aside from his introspective manner, he is the kind of kid you might see in a television commercial for a ghastly new multi-colored breakfast cereal. His height is average; his face is still fleshed with baby fat. His mind, though, is something else. It's moving at the speed of light.

Fred paints in both oils and watercolors and, at the moment, is going through a Picasso-influenced Cubist period. He plays the piano at what is said to be competition level. He takes telephones apart, not to fix them but to make them work more efficiently. As a birthday present for his mother, Dede (Jodie Foster), he writes an opera. Taking the story of Dede, a militantly independent, unmarried mother, a waitress who once wanted to be a dancer, and Fred, a child prodigy hanging onto sanity as if it were a tiger's tail, Ms. Foster makes a terrifically self-assured debut as a motion-picture director with "Little Man Tate." The material is congenial for someone as special as she is. The actress has grown up in the adult world of movies, having been first nominated for an Oscar in 1976 for "Taxi Driver," made when she was 13. Later the same year she played a femme fatale in "Bugsy Malone." By the time she won her Oscar in 1989 for "The Accused," she had been in the business longer than most of the older people she was working with.

It's now apparent that she also knows exactly what she's doing behind the camera. "Little Man Tate" is a small-scale, very engaging comedy that dares to suggest that intelligence, so often mocked in movies, can also be celebrated. Along with his remarkable gifts, Fred has his problems, ulcers among them. When he sees a tabloid headline, "Mother Earth Meltdown," he lets out an involuntary "Oh, my God," which is both funny and, in light of his age, scary. In addition to the greenhouse effect, Fred worries about environmental pollution and the proliferation of nuclear arms. He would also like to have someone to eat lunch with. Fred is not exactly the most popular kid in his class. You don't make friends by knowing all the answers, either with the other students or with the teacher. The grotesquely cheerful Miss Nimvel (Celia Weston) at first thinks he's retarded, then suggests he might be able to skip elementary school entirely. "Little Man Tate" is about the battle for Fred's future. On one side is the protective, tough-talking Dede, who doesn't want Fred turned into an exploited pint-sized freak.

She tries to ignore his brilliance, while feeling her own increasing inadequacy in dealing with him. On the other side is Jane Grierson (Dianne Wiest), a former child prodigy herself, an adult who knows the problems first-hand and who is now an educator of such children. She's still brilliant, but almost completely out of touch with real life. When boiled down to this central conflict, and when seen in light of its resolution, "Little Man Tate" is a lot more conventional than its characters would seem to demand. The same story might well have been turned into a Movie of the Week. Yet, as directed by Ms. Foster, the film has a kind of purity of purpose and control that is very rare in mass-market movies. It avoids a lot of sentimental nonsense. It is also sparely (and well-) written by Scott Frank, the man who wrote the screenplay for Kenneth Branagh's "Dead Again." "Little Man Tate" has a good deal of fun at the expense of "The Odyssey of the Mind," a sort of cross-country "mental Olympics" in which Fred participates at Jane Grierson's request. These are a series of contests at which gifted children display their skills to the amazement of academe.

At one point the kids are seen trying the case of Goldilocks, charged with breaking and entering. The movie never explores the biological roots of such special gifts, though it understands that terrible prices may have to be paid by the children themselves. This awareness gives the film its tension. There is tension, too, in the principal women's roles. Though Ms. Wiest's Jane Grierson is initially an object of ridicule, she also knows what she's talking about in her criticism of Dede's handling of Fred. Ms. Foster's Dede is an even more complicated character, mostly for everything that is left unexplained. Fred's father is never identified. That, says Dede, is something she doesn't talk about. It's as if she had conceived through the cooperation of an anonymous sperm donor. Whatever the explanation, Dede is a determinedly, obsessively free spirit, fierce in her relations with everyone except Fred. She seems to be just the kind of woman who might well produce a child as singular in his way as she is in hers. Ms. Foster is particularly good in her handling of young Mr. Hann-Byrd. This is not the standard American movie's kid performance.

There is never that sinking feeling that he's trying to act, to give a performance as the word is understood by adult actors. Instead, he responds to the people and events around, remaining always a figure of some mystery. Other notable members of the cast are Harry Connick Jr., as the university student who teaches Fred how to play pool; Josh Mostel, as Fred's professor of quantum physics, and George Plimpton, who appears briefly as a fatuous host of a television talk show. "Little Man Tate" is a modest movie in the best sense. Its head is not stuffed with half-baked ambitions that cannot be realized. Like Dede, it is cool, bright, always aware of its limitations and, from time to time, unexpectedly rewarding in its turn of mind. "Little Man Tate," which has been rated PG (Parental guidance suggested), has some vulgar language. Little Man Tate Directed by Jodie Foster; written by Scott Frank; director of photography, Mike Southon; edited by Lynzee Klingman; music by Mark Isham; production designer, Jon Hutman; produced by Scott Rudin and Peggy Rajski; released by Orion Pictures Corporation. Running time: 99 minutes. This film is rated PG.

Dede Tate . . . Jodie Foster Jane Grierson . . . Dianne Wiest Eddie . . . Harry Connick Jr. Garth . . . David Pierce Gina . . . Debi Mazar Damon Wells . . . P. J. Ochlan Fred Tate . . . Adam Hann-Byrd Sexy Women Celebrities - Jodie Foster - Movies, Music, Books, Biography,Reviews, Posters, Memorabilia, Pictures, Reviews, News, Gossip Biography And Filmography: A remarkably artistic child actor from the 1970's who made the changeover to adult stardom, Jodie Foster gave one of the film worlds most brilliant roles in “Taxi Driver” (1976), portraying an 11-year-old prostitute who receives Robert De Niro's distinctive style of revenge. Originally managed by her divorced mother, Brandy, the young actress was the main source of income after becoming a celebrity. She then took control of her own career while developing her style through a good selection of films and attention to her public image – which took a big hit when she was linked to assassin John Hinkley, Jr. after he attempted to kill President Ronald Reagan in 1981.

Foster's rise from child star in “Freaky Friday” (1976) to Oscar winning actress in “The Silence of the Lambs” (1991) to feature film director with “Little Man Tate” (1991) was impressive, while her role as producer on various projects made her one of Hollywood's few female talents who found success in almost all aspects of the movie business. Born on Nov. 19, 1962 in Los Angeles, California, Jodie Foster began life in a broken household. Her father, Lucius, left the family when her mother, Evelyn (Brandy), was almost three months pregnant. With the support of her mother, Jodie began her acting career at the age of three with television commercials; most notably showing her butt in a classic advertisement for Coppertone. In 1969, Jodie made her television start on an episode of “Mayberry R.F.D.”, then had her first full-length role in the television movie, “Menace on the Mountain” (1970).

Two years later, she left her mark on Hollywood with her famous role in "Taxi Driver” as the young teenage prostitute who encourages Robert De Niro's disturbed personal battle. She was nominated for her first Academy Award at age 14. Jodie Foster followed “Taxi Driver” with appearances in numerous features, including the mobster musical parody "Bugsy Malone" (1976) playing Miss Tallulah, a vulgar saloon owner; "The Little Girl Who Lived Down the Lane" (1977), in the title role of a young teen murderer; and "Carny" (1980) as a young teen runaway who joins up with a couple of carnival hustlers. Foster managed to withstand the publicity when John Hinckley Jr. failed in his attempt to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in 1981, something he did to impress the actress. Hinckley was preoccupied with Foster after seeing “Taxi Driver” and moved to New Haven, Connecticut to be close to her while she attended Yale University. Regardless of the unwanted exposure, she remained very private about the episode, even decades later.

While studying at Yale, Jodie worked in films and television, first as a member of an unusual family in the film "The Hotel New Hampshire" (1984) with a young Seth Green, and then "Five Corners" (1987) starring Tim Robbins. She locked in her Hollywood celebrity status with Oscar winning role of a rape victim in "The Accused" (1988), and followed with “The Silence of the Lambs,” playing a rookie FBI agent trying to track down a serial killer (Ted Levine) by faking a close bond with the legendary Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lector played by Anthony Hopkins. Also that year, Foster made her directorial debut with "Little Man Tate" (1991), a drama about a young child phenomenon (Adam Hann-Byrd) who is caught in a battle between his working mother and his teacher. Based on her demonstrated drawing power the previous year with “Silence of the Lambs,” in 1992, she signed a five-year contract with Polygram Filmed Entertainment, which promised to finance the films under her "Egg Pictures" production company.

She was now able to choose whether or not to act, direct or simply produce the films, achieving unusual control and flexibility for a Hollywood actress. Her acting projects during this time were mostly light – taking a role as a young prostitute in Woody Allen's "Shadows and Fog" (1992) featuring Madonna, and starring roles in the drama "Sommersby" (1992) opposite Richard Gere, and in the Western "Maverick" (1994), opposite Mel Gibson – her first comedy in ten years. In her first Egg Pictures project, she gave a great performance in "Nell" (1994) by portraying a country loner who speaks in a new and unknown dialect and earned her fourth Oscar nomination for Best Actress. Her second directed project was "Home for the Holidays" (1995), a group comedy about a fired woman (Holly Hunter) who returns to her childhood home to celebrate Thanksgiving with her family. The film received great reviews, and her handling of the actors – also including Anne Bancroft and Robert Downey Jr. – was impressive.

Jodie Foster returned to acting with the role of a scientist who receives signals that may be from space aliens in "Contact" (1997) with Matthew McConaughey, a reality based sci-fi story created by Carl Sagan and directed by Robert Zemeckis; a film that benefited from her ability to project intellect on the movie screen. Next was an unusual choice, "Anna and the King" (1999) with Bai Ling, a version of the same true life story that moved the magical stage and film production "The King and I." The film cast Foster as widowed British professor Anna Leonowens, who becomes involved in a romance with the King of Siam. She next appeared in a supporting role as the hated Catholic school teacher Sister Assumpta in the film "The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys" (2002). Jodie only worked on a handful of films in the early 2000's. In director David Fincher’s "Panic Room" (2002), she played a single mom opposite her daughter stuck in their home's panic room during a home invasion by three robbers.

Foster won the role after Nicole Kidman quit two weeks before shooting due to a knee injury. She started the project six months pregnant with her second son, Kit. Nevertheless, she was able to pull off the role with her usual confidence. Her next movie was "Flightplan" (2005) that cast her as an aeronautics engineer and very protective mother of a six-year-old daughter who disappears while on an airplane flight. When she tries to find her child, the airline crew claims the girl was never on the plane. Foster next starred in Spike Lee’s “Inside Man” (2006), playing a well-connected fixer for the rich and powerful hired to keep quiet the secrets of a bank owner while his employees are held hostage by a robber. The thief stays one step ahead of the hostage negotiator played by Denzel Washington in an attempt to pull off the perfect heist. The actress was then hired and cast in “The Brave One” (2007), a revenge thriller about a New York City radio host who fights to recover from a vicious attack by setting out on a dark journey to seek justice.

She ends up creating a media spectacle that enthralls the city while she battles with herself over whether or not her quest for vengeance is truly the right path. Jodie Foster wrapped her year with the comedy adventure "Nim's Island" (2008), about a young girl who inhabits an isolated island with her scientist father and communicates with a reclusive author of the novel she's reading. The Jodie Foster Picture Pages Background: "Normal is not something to aspire to, it's something to get away from." Jodie Foster. Two-time Oscar Best Actress winner Jodie Foster garnered rave reviews for her fabulous portrayal of rape victim Sarah Tobias in Jonathan Kaplan's The Accused (1988) and of young FBI agent Clarice Starling in Jonathan Demme's adaptation of Thomas Harris' novel, The Silence of the Lambs (1991).

First gaining notice while costarring with Robert De Niro as teenage prostitute Iris Steensma in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976), Foster later received more applause for starring in such films as Bugsy Malone (1976), Five Corners (1987), Little Man Tate (1991, also directing) and Nell (1994, also produced). An accomplished actress since the 1970s, Foster has starred in more recent films like Anna and the King (1999), Panic Room (2002) and A Very Long Engagement (2004). 5' 4" tall, 34B-24-33 ï¿½ Foster was listed as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People by People Magazine in 2002. In 1981, she became one of Hollywood's most private celebrities after John Hinckley Jr. attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan to attract her attention. Class Valedictorian Childhood and Family: "Kids talk like sailors now. Adults don't want to know." Jodie Foster at age 14.

The youngest of four children, Alicia Christian Foster was born on November 19, 1962, in Los Angeles, California. Her father, Lucius Foster III, abandoned the family when Jodie's mother was pregnant with her. Jodie has three older siblings who insisted on calling her "Jodie," sisters Constance Foster (born in 1955, called Connie), Lucinda Foster (born in 1952) and brother Lucius Foster IV (actor; born on July 12, 1957; called Buddy). At merely three years old, Jodie began reading. She attended the elite prep school Lycï¿½e Franï¿½ais de Los Angeles, from which she graduated as class valedictorian in 1980. She then was admitted to Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, where she studied English Literature and graduated with a B.A. in 1985. Moreover, she gave the Class Day speech at Yale in 1993 and received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Yale in 1997.

Off screen, Jodie is the mother of two sons, Kit Foster (born on September 29, 2001) and Charles Foster (born on July 20, 1998), and refuses to tell who their fathers are. Jodie is fluent in French and loves organic food. She is a fan of the book "Franny and Zooey" by J.D. Salinger and likes spending her off-time practicing kickboxing, yoga, karate, aerobics and weightlifting. Foster also enjoys collecting fancy kitchenware and black and white photos. Prevailing Jodie Career: "It's not my personality to be extroverted emotionally, so acting has been helpful to me." Jodie Foster Initiating her first public appearance as a model for Coppertone sunscreen commercials at age three, Jodie Foster landed her first acting work at age six in an episode of the sitcom Mayberry R.F.D. She subsequently appeared in more TV series like ABC's The Courtship of Eddie's Father (played the recurring character of Joey Kelley from 1969 to 1972), Julia, and Gunsmoke.

After playing a bit part (as Suellen McIver) in Vincent McEveety's family TV movie Menace on the Mountain (1970), Foster stepped on to the silver screen in 1972 when Bernard McEveety cast her in the lead role of Samantha in his Oscar nominated family drama film Napoleon and Samantha (1972, opposite Johnny Whitaker). In that same year, she costarred with Raquel Welch in Jerrold Freedman's fast-paced drama, Kansas City Bomber, and lent her voice to the TV series The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan. The next year, Foster worked with James Garner in Bernard McEveety's Old West film, One Little Indian, and reunited with Johnny Whitaker in Don Taylor's adaptation of Mark Twain's classic tale of life on the Mississippi, the acclaimed musical adventure Tom Sawyer. Afterwards, she appeared primarily on television, including in Alexander, Alexander, The Addams Family (TV Series, voice), Rookie of the Year, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (TV Series, all in 1973), Paper Moon (TV Series) and Smile, Jenny, You're Dead (a.k.a.

Don't Call the Police, both in 1974) as well as The Secret Life of T.K. Dearing (1975). Foster returned to the wide screen playing young tomboy Audrey in Martin Scorsese's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974, starring Oscar winning actress Ellen Burstyn). She also won the role of Richard Harris and Lois Nettleton's young daughter, who suffered from incurable heart trouble, in Don Taylor's Echoes of a Summer (1976, a.k.a. The Last Castle). "I spent four hours with a shrink trying to prove I was normal enough to play a hooker. Does that make sense?" Jodie Foster on her role in Taxi Driver (1976) when she was 13. 1976 proved to be Foster's breakout year. She rejoined Martin Scorsese to play teenage prostitute Iris Steensma in his crime drama Taxi Driver (1976, opposite Robert De Niro). The role handed 14-year-old Foster her first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

During that same year, she also costarred with Scott Baio in Alan Parker's unique mobster-musical movie Bugsy Malone and portrayed a daughter who switched her personality with her mother (played by Barbara Harris) in Gary Nelson's comedy film based on Mary Rodgers' novel, Freaky Friday. She also played brilliant Jewish orphan Rynn in Nicolas Gessner's film version of Laird Koenig's novel, The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane. In 1977, she flew to France to star in Moi, fleur bleue (a.k.a. Stop Calling Me Baby!) and to Italy to film the comedy Casotto (a.k.a. Beach House). Foster then returned to Hollywood as street-wise L.A. kid Casey Brown, who joined Leo McKern in order to cheat Helen Hayes, in Norman Tokar's comedy film based on the novel by Michael Innes, Candleshoe.

The early 1980s saw Foster in such films as Carny, Foxes (both in 1980), O'Hara's Wife (1982), Svengali (1983, TV), The Hotel New Hampshire and The Blood of Others (a.k.a. Sang des autres, Le, both in 1984). She also co-produced and starred as penniless, naï¿½ve Victoria in Michael Laughlin's Mesmerized (1986, opposite John Lithgow) and played roles in the next years' films Five Corners, Siesta (both in 1987) and Stealing Home (1988). Foster's first Oscar for Best Actress arrived in 1988. She received critical acclaim for marvelously portraying Sarah Tobias, a woman who was brutally gang-raped in a bar, in Jonathan Kaplan's thriller drama The Accused (costarring Kelly McGillis). Two years later, she played Ann Benton, a self-possessed artist who stumbles across a mob hit in progress, in Dennis Hopper's mobster drama Catchfire (a.k.a. Backtrack).

A second Oscar Best Actress followed in 1991. Jodie played ambitious FBI agent Clarice Starling in the thriller drama, adopted from Thomas Harris' novel, The Silence of the Lambs (opposite Anthony Hopkins). Meanwhile, she made her directional debut in Little Man Tate, in which she also starred as a single mother who raised a genius (played by Adam Hann-Byrd), and set up her own production company, Egg Productions, in 1992. After appearing in Woody Allen's Shadows and Fog (1992), Foster became Richard Gere's estranged wife Laurel Sommersby in Jon Amiel's adaptation of the French film The Return Of Martin Guerre, in the romantic drama Sommersby (1993). She also costarred with Mel Gibson in Richard Donner's film version of Roy Huggins's classic Western TV series, Maverick (1994) and netted another Oscar nomination for Best Actress for portraying the title role of untamed wild child Nell (1994) in Michael Apted's film with the same name.

The film, inspired by Mark Handley's play "Idioglossia," was also the first film of Foster's production company, Egg Pictures. In the rest of the 1990s, Foster starred as Dr. Ellie Arroway in Oscar-winning director Robert Zemeckis' adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Carl Sagan's novel, the sci-fi Contact (1997). She also became 19th century widowed British schoolteacher Ana Leonowens in Andy Tennant's classical romantic drama, Anna and the King (1999, also starring Yun-Fat Chow). Behind the screen, Foster made her TV producer debut in The Baby Dance (inspired by Jane Anderson's stage play), which received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Made for Television Movie. She also worked as the executive producer for Keith Gordon's Waking the Dead (2000) and eventually decided to close her production company Egg Pictures in late 2001 to spend more time with her children.

In 2002, Foster came back to the big screen as one-legged religious Sister Assumpta, who set her parish student boys on an obsessed trail of revenge, in Peter Care's version of Chris Fuhrman's book, The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys. She also played newly divorced Meg Altman, who played a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with three intruders, in David Fincher's blockbuster Panic Room. More recent, the award-winning actress appeared in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's love story, A Very Long Engagement (2004), based on the acclaimed novel by Sebastien Japrisot. She will also soon star in Robert Schwentke's thriller drama Flightplan and will team with Clive Owen and Denzel Washington in Spike Lee's crime drama Inside Man. "They've lived longer, they're more confident about their choices and they don't have to be hip and cool any more, which I think is a godsend. You make really bad choices when you are trying to be hip.

You hear all this stuff about actresses not having the same shelf life as actors, especially once they are over 40, but I didn't make my career as an ingï¿½nue or as the beautiful slinky girlfriend." Jodie Foster on the advantages of being an actress who turns 40.

Awards: Hollywood Film Festival: Hollywood Discovery Award - Outstanding Achievement in Acting, 2002 American Cinematheque Gala Tribute: American Cinematheque Award, 1999 European Film: Audience Award - Best Actress, 1997 Golden Satellite: Mary Pickford Award, 1997 European Film Academy: People's Award (Actress), 1997 Golden Satellite: Outstanding Artistic Contribution to the Entertainment Industry, 1997 American Society of Cinematographers: President's Award, 1995 People's Choice: Favorite Dramatic Motion Picture Actress, 1995 David di Donatello: Best Foreign Actress, Nell, 1995 Screen Actors Guild: Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role, Nell, 1995 Hasty Pudding Theatricals: Woman of the Year, 1992 Hollywood Womens' Press Club: Golden Apple Award for enchanting Hollywood's image, 1991 Los Angeles Film Teachers Association: Arthur Knight Excellence in Filmmaking Award (for Special Achievement in Directing and Acting), Little Man Tate, 1991 New York Film Critics Circle: Best Actress

, The Silence of the Lambs, 1991 Chicago Film Critics Association: Best Actress, The Silence of the Lambs, 1991 Golden Globe: Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama), The Silence of the Lambs, 1991 Oscar: Best Actress, The Silence of the Lambs, 1991 BAFTA: Best Actress, The Silence of the Lambs, 1991 Oscar: Best Actress, The Accused, 1988 National Board of Review: Best Actress, The Accused, 1988 Golden Globe: Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama), The Accused; three-way tie with Shirley MacLaine and Sigourney Weaver, 1988 Independent Spirit Award: Best Actress, Five Corners, 1988 Los Angeles Film Critics Association: New Generation Award; tied with Martin Scorsese, 1976 National Society of Film Critics: Best Supporting Actress, Taxi Driver, 1976 BAFTA: Best Supporting Actress, Taxi Driver and Bugsy Malone, 1976 BAFTA: Most Promising Newcomer, Taxi Driver and Bugsy Malone, 1976

 Money Monster: Jodie Foster Talks Her Directing Career SHARE Desiree Navarro—WireImage/Getty Images Jodie Foster attends the AOL Build Speaker Series on May 9, 2016 in New York, New York.

The Oscar-winning actor and director talks to TIME about her new Wall-Street thriller and her recent focus on directing When Jodie Foster directed her first movie, Little Man Tate, in 1991, TIME ran a cover story about her titled “A Director Is Born.” Written by TIME’s late film critic Richard Corliss , the profile predicted that the 28-year-old would handle the transition from actor to director with the same grace with which she navigated her way beyond the perils of childhood stardom. “As the child performer was to the adult actress, so the tyro director may be to the mature auteur,” Corliss concluded. “If this is the larva, imagine the butterflies to come.” In the 25 years since then, those butterflies have been few and far between. Foster directed just one more film in the ‘90s, 1995’s Home for the Holidays, and another, The Beaver, more than 15 years after that. She tells TIME she felt there was so much more she had to say, but the demands of her acting career and motherhood kept directing mostly out of reach.

But now, with the release of Money Monster , her fourth and most ambitious film yet, Foster is determined to remain behind the camera—at least, until she decides it’s time to get back in front of it. On its surface, Money Monster is a political thriller: After a bad stock tip, a disgruntled investor named Kyle Budwell (Jack O’Connell) takes slick financial TV host Lee Gates ( George Clooney ) hostage on-air, as his producer Patty ( Julia Roberts ) does her best to keep everyone alive (and make some good TV while she’s at it). It’s a global yarn that weaves together programmers in Seoul and hackers in Iceland, miners in South Africa and CEOs on corporate jets. To Foster, though, it’s an emotional journey about two men facing different flavors of failure, reckoning with their shame and all of the people, including themselves, they’ve let down. With the film premiering at Cannes this week and opening in theaters May 13, Foster talked to TIME about the movie’s expression of “righteous rage,” why now feels like the time to focus on directing and why she’s excited to return to acting in her golden years.

TIME: Do you see Kyle as something of an everyman, standing in for Americans who feel screwed by the Great Recession ? Foster: Definitely. He starts off pretty threatening. He’s clearly unstable. He’s filled with righteous rage, so he’s not someone you want to emulate. And yet you see the simple things you completely relate to: that he has a terrible opinion of himself, he thinks he’s dumb, he’s thought he’s dumb his whole life. This glitch just keeps pointing a finger at him and saying, You’re too dumb to understand, and that sets him off. It’s not a clean heroes-vs.-villains narrative. It isn’t. And yet, when you finally get to what really happened, [it’s] pretty simple. Somebody abused the system out of greed. He was just looking for somebody to say they did the wrong thing and that he was right. He wanted moral vindication, he wanted ethical vindication. It’s not like he was saying, Give me money. He was saying, Give me dignity. His rhetoric about the system being rigged sounds a lot like that of Bernie Sanders . We wrote it first! [Laughs] But listen, it’s a dialogue that’s out there.

It’s not new because it’s true. How much do you see this movie as reflecting political conversations in the ether right now? I think it just reflects our time, in terms of our relationship with technology and the democratization that technology has brought us and the bad side effects of technology. 2008 was a wake-up call, people remember it, they got interested. Our film is talking about stuff that’s happening now. I do feel that the film is equal parts cynicism and absolute hope. Leaving the theater you could have some interesting political conversations. But I don’t see it as a political film. The best way to get people engaged is to make sure that you create characters that are emotional and full, where the drama comes first. I understand Patty (Roberts’ character) went through some changes from the original script. She probably changed the most. She was really just the producer of the show and said, “Go to two, go to three, go to two,” and we brought in the idea of her speaking into an earpiece, so they were able to have this intimacy during this whole crisis that nobody else was privy to. George Clooney and Julia Roberts have such a believable rapport.

How much of that was there from the get-go and how much developed during filming? Their chemistry and the sparkle between them is just undeniable. It’s almost better now that they’re older, because it is really a brother-sister thing, and it’s not confused with sexuality. They were not in the same room for the whole movie. They were only in the same room for the first and last scene. Was she actually in his ear? No, never. We thought about that but we couldn’t figure it out with the schedules. They weren’t even in the same country. Did you see yourself in any one of the characters more than the others? Part of the job of being a director is seeing yourself in every one of the characters, and if there’s one salient feature in my films, it’s that everyone has a point of view. So I absolutely see myself in Lee, somebody whose entire self-worth is wrapped up in his image of himself as someone in the public eye and doesn’t know who he is unless he’s the center of attention. I see myself in Patty, the person who’s the methodical, calm producer, who’s producing everyone’s survival because she knows how to be head-first.

And I see myself in Kyle, this rage of having done the right thing. I showed up on time, I worked hard, I did what I was supposed to do and I got screwed over, and it’s not fair. Did this feel more ambitious than films you directed in the past? Oh yeah. Obviously the budget is bigger, and two bigger stars, so there’s a lot more on the line. It’s a thriller and it operates as a general public film, and I think it should because that’s the best way to tell this story. But it’s also really intimate and complex and layered. I love the idea of being challenged to figure out how to do both of those things. How do you think having such a long acting career influences your approach to directing? Oh my gosh, everything. All those years of watching different filmmakers and how they come up with decisions and tell a story, all of that has just been a great film school. It’s not like I’m going to stop acting, but this is definitely my time to focus on directing. Why does now feel like the right time? Probably because my kids are older, they don’t need me to be 100% as present as they did before.

In fact they need more space and they need to know that mom does something else that fulfills her. I only directed three movies in almost 20 years, and I sort of regret that because there’s so much I want to say, but I had a hard time juggling my acting life, my family life and the directing. I think unless you can commit to the directing 100%, it’s nearly impossible to get movies off the ground. Does directing coincide at all with a desire to be less in the spotlight? I think so, although I’ve done so much press in the last few months it really doesn’t feel like it! I think I just want to do the work, and I know that my job as an actor is obviously doing the work but it’s also promoting the movie and being a—brand is the wrong word, being a something—that’s not true of directing. My job as a director is the hard, dirty work of prepping and production and post and telling stories. A tiny portion of that is selling the movies, and right now that feels like a better balance. A lot of women say that meaty roles dwindle after a certain age . What’s your stance on that? Well, that’s just true.

It’s true of characters in novels as well. I think people are inherently more interested in a younger person’s story, so there’s less stories about older people. But I’m still excited about making movies, and I’m excited about having a different kind of career as an actor now. I’m excited about being 60 or 70 and playing interesting parts where I’m not fighting the expectation of carrying the movie or looking glamorous. I think it’ll be nice to really do the work. How tired are you of having to answer questions about the state of women behind the camera these days? You must be asked about it six times a day. [Laughs] I’m not that tired. It’s good that people are talking about it now. I don’t know why they weren’t 30 years ago, because it’s not like it’s a new issue. There’s always been lots of women directors in Europe and on TV, that’s changed a lot in the last 20 years. It’s just mainstream features that haven’t. Diversity takes a hit when the studios are so averse to risk, and somehow women and minorities are considered risks. People want to change, they just don’t know how.

You change the culture from within, and you have to challenge people to be interested in different stories. That’s where I think the dialogue has been kind of simplistic. It’ll be fun to start seeing people have a more complex dialogue about diversity in Hollywood.

Question: Which Oscar-winning actress directed the film "Little Man Tate" in 1991?
Answer: Jodie Foster